Akwaaba – Welcome

This course explores the emergence of cities in sub-Saharan Africa, and traces major themes in the history of urban Africa. By looking at the creative adaptations of urban Africans in work, leisure, popular culture, politics, conflict, gender, generation, and race, we will attempt to answer a number of questions: When and how did the city emerge in Africa? How African is the city? What do African cities look like? How have urban Africans responded to the dramatic historical changes and intense cultural interactions of African history (e.g. colonialism, industrialization, urbanization, globalization)? In answering these questions, we will pay attention to the work of African innovators and entrepreneurs, who made meaningful lives in the city on their own terms

Students who enroll in the course will travel to Accra, Ghana, as part of a 4-week study abroad program. There we will do collective readings, engage in class discussions, take trips to Accra and other cities in southern Ghana, and conduct research throughout the city with Ghanaian and American partners. You will come away from the class with more than a cool trip (though it will be that) and a research paper. You will learn how to conduct fieldwork and can use those experiences to explore your own areas of interest – entrepreneurship, engineering, public health, computer science, performing and visual arts, history, journalism, political science, and countless other fields. Your work will go up on the web as part of this class blog, a bigger digital humanities project, and your own website, giving your work a much bigger audience and allowing you much more flexibility in presenting and organizing your research. Students are encouraged to use digital technologies and social media to fully explore Accra’s history and culture. Our goal isn’t to come to conclusions. Our goal is to learn to contextualize the questions. Spend time thinking about what you’re interested in and why it matters. Be curious, explore, and learn.

Students from all fields and backgrounds are encouraged to apply! There are no course pre-requisites. Students are required to apply to the course. Go here to learn more about the application requirements or attend one of the special information sessions scheduled this semester.

Check out the class blogs from Dr. Hart’s recent classes in Tanzania and Ghana to learn more about study abroad and see examples of student research.

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Our travel to Elmina and Cape Coast will allow us to explore one incarnation of urban life in Ghana. Our experience in Accra will show us another. Mid-way through the course, we will also visit Kumasi. Kumasi is the capital of the Ashanti Region, and Ghana’s second-largest city. It is also the capital of the Asante Kingdom. The Asante Kingdom controls the majority of the country’s gold mines, making Kumasi a major industrial center. The Asante have also long-controlled trade of slaves, cash crops like cocoa and palm oil, and many other products throughout the region, connecting interior markets with coastal ports and other urban centers.

Throughout our month in Ghana, students will have a number of opportunities to travel around the country. These trips will give us an opportunity to view different kinds of cities or urban communities in southern Ghana. It will also give us the opportunity to explore some major historical, cultural, and educational sites.

The trip was amazing, and it would behoove any and all that are interested to not pass this opportunity up. The trip inspired me in ways that words can’t explain. I wish you luck and hope you learn and have as much fun as I did.

Taking my course with Dr. Hart and traveling to Ghana gave me the opportunity to experience a culture vastly different from my own as well as look into what it really takes to conduct fieldwork. My experience allowed me to fine-tune and focus my personal interests into a research project that I was passionate about.